Letter: Civility and taking up arms

The Capitol stays open as the Republican majority in Congress remains stymied by their inability to fulfill their political promise to repeal and replace "Obamacare", because of opposition and wavering within the GOP ranks, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)(Photo: Cliff Owen, AP)

The original tea party patriots had no voice. King George made all the choices. They took up arms and rebelled against the king. Taxation without representation was, for them, intolerable.

After the war, our founding fathers went to extraordinary lengths to create for the United States a different kind of government - representative government.

People use their voices in the election of their president. The people use their voices in the election of their congressmen. Congressmen are elected to represent those voices. Some people may be disaffected by the result, but they cannot say in truth that their view was not represented, only that it did not prevail.

The failure to prevail doesn't not justify taking up arms. It only justifies working harder at the next election. Democracy works toward the next election.

Our representative government is not fool proof. Representatives fail to represent. Leaders monkey with the structure to defeat its purpose. Our representatives gerrymander congressional districts to make them safe for party - not make them representatives.

Leaders force congressmen to sign pledges at the behest of lobbyists. They vow to defeat the opposition, whatever the cost. They urge their members never to compromise. They are not tea party patriots. Rather, such leadership betrays those patriots. They contrive to make it so that our representatives are hard-pressed to represent us.

Taking up arms is made possible by a prevailing climate of hostility. Unnatural hostility in which there is no communication or too little communication between opposing points of view. Unnatural hostility in which there is no respect, or too little respect, between holders of opposite views. Unnatural hostility in which a state of war among us is the norm.

In short, the taking up of arms testifies to the failure of leadership.